Rotary steam-engine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHD. C. BRISTOL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ROTARY STEAM-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,874, dated July 26, 1853.

To am whom t may concern Be it known that I, RICHARD C. BRISTOL, ofChicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines -to be Driven bySteam or Any Vapor, Fluid, or Gas; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l, is a perspective view of a rotaryengine, having my improvement-s. Fig. 2, is a section of the same, takenat right angles to the axis; and Fig. 3, is a longi tudinal section ofthe same. Fig. 4, is a longitudinal section of the abutment packing.Fig. 5, is a face view of the same; and Fig. 6, is a transverse sectionof the same. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of part of one of the cylinderheads, with the side of one of the small radial cylinders removed, toshow the pistons upon which the steam acts, to move out the slider.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts, in each ofthe several figures.

The description of rotary engine herein referred to, to whichluy-improvements are applied is that consisting of an outer fixedcylinder, having open ends, with an inner cylinder or wheel, so fittedto it, as to close its ends, and have a channel or steam way within it,outside the said inner cylinder or wheel; the outer cylinder having oneor more abutments, which project from its inside, and fit to theperiphery of the inner cylinder or wheel; and the latter having slidersor wings, upon which the steam, vapor, fluid, or gas, is made to act,for the purpose of giving rotation to it, by being admitted betweenthem, (the sliders or wings,) and the abutment or abutments. In enginesof this description and others of a similar character, practicalexperience has proved that one of the greatest hindrances to theirsuccessful operation has been in the radial action of the sliders orpistons and in making these parts steam tight by keeping them up totheir bearing or rubbing surface. Springs and various mechanicalarrangements have been employed for pressing the sliders outward to abearing, but such devices are, on many accounts, objectionable, and ithas frequently been proposed, as a substitute for these devices, tocause steam to act upon the inner ends of the sliders to press themoutward; for this purpose, both plug and piston valves have beeninserted in the body of the revolving cylinder and so arranged that, ineither direction of the engines travel, they admit steam from the mainchannel or piston race, by ways or passages from the steam sides of thepistons or sliders to the inner ends of the said sliders to press ithemoutward, but this action has been found defective for the followingreason; the outer ends of the sliders necessarily become rounded ontheir edges by the wear of them in passing the abutments so that, intime, the `outer ends of the sliders present but a small surface forcontact and steam freely penetrates between the outer ends of thesliders and the stationary cylinder whereby the effect of the steam onthe inner ends of the sliders is counteracted or neutralized and steamescapes past the rounded bearing surface of the outer ends of thesliders to the exhaust and consequently vdetracts from the eiiiciencyand economy of the engine; or, the friction of the sliders in theirrecesses or grooves, by the pressure of steam on their one side or faceonly, in passing the abutments has heretofore been such as to robmaterially from the power of the engine and to make the .action of thesliders in radiating outward sluggish so that, in running the enginefast, steam has passed the slider before it has completed its outwardradiation, the pressure of steam on the inner ends of the `sliders beinginsuflicient to overcome with the requisite rapidity or promptness thefriction of the sliders in their recesses and the counteracting forcewhich is exerted by the steam on the rounded outer ends of the slidersbefore adverted to; this tendency of the sliders to bind or stick, andthe insufficiency of the specified arrangement for working them outwardand permitting them to move freely inward, causes much irregularity inthe action of the engine and not unfrequently produces entire stoppageas, ifk

To remove these defects in the rotary engine is the object of myinvention.

In the accompanying drawing of a rotary engine A, (F ig. 1,) is aquadrangular framing, supporting, on opposite sides, two plumber blocks,B, which receive the jour* nals of the main shaft S, to which the innercylinder or steam wheel, D, (see Figs. 2 and 3,) is secured.

C, is the outer cylinder, which is bored true and parallel, and faced atthe ends; it is surrounded by a double steam pipe or band, E, and isfurnished with two lugs, F, o-n opposite sides of its axis; the lowerfaces of the said lugs being slightly convex,

fare bored to correspond with the size of the jinterior of the outercylinder, and faced tov lit closely to its ends, and are fitted tightly,,by grinding or otherwise, over the inner ,"heads, M, M, and that partof the outer ends, O, O, which corresponds in size with, 5M, M. to presstightly against the ends of the outer cylinder, by set-screws, Z, Z,working in female screws in the fianges, P, P, of the `outer heads, andthus make a steam-tight lwvorking joint, between the outer and innercylinders, moving always with the latter g and the heads. lfor edges ofthe sliders, as extend beyond the ends of the cylinders, must be made ofmetal that is soft enough to batter up when pressed Eby the steamagainst the inside of the packiing rings, and thus wear off, to make upfor the wear of those parts of the edges within gthe cylinder, and ofthe interior of the cylinand resting on suitable bearing faces, on thetop of the framing, at a suitable height to keep its axis in line withthe axis of t-he shaft, S. The convexity of the lower faces of the lugsis to make them serve as rockers, upon which the cylinder is capable ofvibrating to a certain extent. The double steam pipe or band has twopassages, b1, both entirely encircling the cylinder, but independent ofeach other; the former communicating with the interior of the cylinder,through openings, c, c, and d, CZ, shown in Fig. 2; and the lattercommunicating with the same through opening, c1, c1 and 1,6Z1, whosepositions are indicated in the above figure, by dotted lines. Thepassages, Z), b1, communicate, by means of ports, e, el, with theinterior of the steam-chest, G, on the top of the cylinder; the saidsteam-chest being provided with an exhaust port, f, between, e, e1, andbeing furnished with a slide valve, H, which is capable of being movedby a handle, I, so as to open either steam port, and bring the otherinto communication with the exhaust port, or to close both steam ports.

J', is t-he steam pipe, and K, the exhaust pipe, which is furnished witha valve L.

The inner cylinder or steam wheel, D, is connected by four arms, L, z,L, 71 with its hub, g, which is firmly secured by keying or otherwise,to thev shaft, S; its outside is turned preferably true, and its endsare faced, to make the length precisely the same as that of the outercylinder. Heads, M, M, which are faced true on both sides, and turned tothe same size as the bore of the outer cylinder, are secured tight-ly bybolts to the ends of the inner cylinder, D. The arms, h, 72 L, z, of theinner cylinder, have radial slots, z', z', z', z', to receive thesliders or wings, N, N, N, N, and corresponding slots are made in theheads, M, M, extending to their outer edges; the slots are planed orotherwise made true inside, and are wide enough to allow of a smallamount of steam room on either side of the sliders. The sliders extendall across to the outer faces of the heads, M, M, with which their endsare Hush, and they have arms, y', j,

z der.

,toward the outside of the heads, to allow of :the movement of the arms,when the sliders Iare thro-wn out.

Q, Q, are stiff metal packing rings, which These packing rings arecaused So much of the outer corners R, R, are the cylinder abutments,which 'are secured to the interior of the outer cylinfder, and packed tofit closely to the inner cylinder, and to the inside of the heads, M, M.The face packing, m, m, is made in two pieces (see Figs. 4t and 5,) witha draw 01 tongue joint; and each piece has a lug, n, -near the outerend, with an inclined face. It .is kept tight to the face of the innercylinlder, by screws, 0, o, which work in female screws, through thecylinder, and press upon a follower, 29,' and, to the heads, by wedges,g, g, which are made to act on the inclines on ,the lugs, by means ofscrews, 1, r, which iwork in female screws, through the cylinder.

Side packing pieces, s, s, are attached to the face packing, by draw ortongue joints, (see Figs. .Land 6.) The abutments rise with an easycurve, above and below, in order that Athe sliders may have an easymotion.

T, T, are the small pistons, by which the sliders are moved outwardtoward the inner face of the cylinder C, and made to form tight jointswith it; they are connected by eyes, t, t, to the ends of the arms, y',j, which project through the slots, lc, 7c, and work in small cylinders,U, U, outside the heads, O, O. These small cylinders are radial to 'Illl gal the large cylinder, arid are formed partly in bosses, cast on theheads, O, 0, and partly in plates, u, u, bolted to the said bosses; theyare open at their outer, but closed at their inner ends. The reason forthus making the cylinders, U, U, in two parts, is that the connectionmay be properly made between their rods and the slides, which could notso well be done, without removing the outer sides of the'cylinders.rllhe plates, u, u, also cover and close the slots, ir,- in F ig. 7, theplate, u, is omitted, to show the inside of the cylinder, U.

V, is the cone, or plug, and W, the seat of the cut-off cock; the latteris placed just outside the steam chest, in the steam pipe; and theformer is attached to a shaft, e, which is represented in the drawing asreceiving motion through a spur-wheel, w, from a toothed ring, placedoutside one of the rings, Q; but

it may be driven by a train of light bevel gearing from the shaft, S.lThe passage, y, being made diametrically through the plug, V, will makea communication from the steam pipe to the steam-chest, twice, atregular intervals, during each revolution. As the engine shown containsfour sliders, and each slider requires to be acted upon by the steam, asit passes either set of steam openings in the cylinder, the steamcommunication requires to be opened four times during every revolutionof the engine, consequently the plug, V, requires to rotate at doublethe velocity of the engine. rlhe position of the passage, y, in the plugof the cock, in relation to the sliders, must be such as to admit thesteam, as the sliders pass the abutments; and the time of cutting off,will depend upon the width of the passages in the plug and seat of thecock, which must be made narrower or wider, according as it is desiredto work more or less expansively.

The operation of the engine is as follows :-The steam, when the engineis working, is admitted tothe inside of the cylinder C, through eitherof the ports c, el, and pipes or passage, b1, according to the directionin which its rotation is required; the exhaust being made through theopposite port and passage to those through which the steam is admitted.`When the engine is at rest, both ports, c and e1, are closed by thevalve, H. Before starting, the valve, L, in the exhaust pipe, must beclosed, (as shown in Fig. 4,) in order to make the steam, when it isadmitted, force out the pistons, U, U, U, U, to draw out the sliders.The steam, when admitted, iills all the steam space within the engine,and reaches the pistons through the small space in the slots, in thearms of the inner cylinder and the heads, M, M, and, O, 0. The valve, L,is opened as soon as the sliders are drawn out; t-he exhaust thencommences and the engine starts. The pressure of the steam on thesliders forces their exhaust sides close up against the inside of theslots in the arms of the inner cylinder, and in the heads, M, M, andmakes tight joints; and the pressure on the pistons makes a tight jointbetween the sliders and the cylinder, C. F or the sake of illustratingthe operation more perfectly,M suppose the steam port, e, te be open, asit is shown in the drawing, the passage or pipe, Z), is kept constantlyfilled with steam, which enters the cylinder, C, through the openings,c, c, and (l, (l, causing the inner cylinder to rotate in the directionof the arrow l, shown in Fig, 2; and, after performing its duty,escaping through the openings, d1, (ll, into the passage, b1, which isin communication with the exhaust pipe. in the position represented in2, the sliders, N NW, having steam on both sides, are in equilibrio; butthe sliders N, N, having the space in front of them in communicationwith the exhaust, are acted upon by the pressure of the steam, whichforces them tight against the exhaust sides of the slots in the arms ofthe inner cylinder, and in the heads, M, M; and a small port-ion of thesteam escaping, through the spaces left on the steam sides of the slots,passes into the cylinders, U, U, and acts upon the pistons.

As soon as the sliders shall have moved far enough from their presentposition, to have passed the openings, cl, (Z, (Z1, (Z1, those N, andN", will be acted upon by the steam; and the spaces betweenvthem and thesliders in front of them, will be open to the exhaust; the sliders, N,N, will then be in cqm'lz'brz'o, no steam being on either side. As therotation continues, the latter sliders, continuing a equilibrio willcome in contact with the rising part of the abutments, and will beforced in toward the axis; but, immediately after passing the packedface of the abutment, the steam, through, 0, and, (Z, will enter thecylinders, U, U, and force out the pistons, so as to keep them close tothe abutment, and gradually move them out to the inner face of thecylinder, C. The intermediate sliders are similarly acted upon, in theirproper succession. The reason for having double sets of ste-am andexhaust openings, is to enable the sliders to be forced in and drawnout, in passing the abutments, while 'in equilibrio, or with an equalpressure on both sides; and such object being obtained, only the weightof the sliders and pistons has to be moved, with the addition of thefriction of the latter.

Thus, it will be seen, that, by the combi natio-n and arrangement of thesteam ways or passages with the abutments and sliders having outwardradiating pistons (T), as described, -the sliders in passing theabutments will be exempt from all lateral friction by pressure of thesteam on their one entering 4 side or face both in moving outward andinward so that they will work freely in their recesses or grooves, andthat the outward radiating pistons (T), by having their outer faceexposed to the atmosphere, will give that promptness and certainty ofaction to the sliders in radiating outward which is necessary toestablish a steam tight joint between the sliders and the stationarycylinder and which frequently fails or is but imperfectly establishedwhen the sliders are pressed outward by steam acting on their inner endsonly, as explained; the outward radiating pistons will present no moreresistance than that induced by their own friction o-r weight to theinward movement of the sliders; sticking' o-r failure of the sliderswill be avoided and a tight but free action of the working partsobtained.

The engine is stopped by bringing the valve (H) to such a position as toclose both steam ports, and will be reversed by bringing it to aposition that will place the steam port which is open, in communicationwith t-he exhaust, and open the opposite steam port.

Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination and arrangement of the outward radiating pistons, ortheir equivalents, with the sliders, steamways or passages andabutment-s, in such manner that the sliders are free from lateralfriction by pressure of the propelling medium in passing the abutmentsand are worked outward and kept up to their bearing by the pistonssubstantially as specilied, whereby promptness and certainly is insuredin the outward action of the sliders, counteract-ing pressure to theirinward radiation removed and a tightbut free action of the slidersthroughout their entire travel produced, essentially as set forth.

R. C. BRISTOL.

Vit-nesses:

H. WALES, O. D. MUNN.

